Inflation: the older the French are and the further away from cities, the more it affects them, according to the OFCE

Who felt the price rise the most in 2022? The magnitude of the shock depends mainly on the age and size of the residence agglomeration, answers the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) in a study published this Wednesday.

“The older the reference person, the greater (their) exposure” to energy and food prices, which rose 15% and 12% respectively between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022, the researchers say. three authors.

“A household whose reference person is over 65 years of age has an inflation rate 0.6 points higher than average inflation”, measured at 5.2% by INSEE.

On the other hand, if the person of reference is between 30 and 40 years old, “inflation would be 0.5 points lower than the average, in relation to lower spending on food from their consumption basket,” completes the OFCE.

Another finding from economists: the smaller the residence agglomeration, the stronger inflation feels.

The average price increase experienced by a household in a rural area “would be 1 point higher than average, while in the Paris metropolitan area it is 0.8 points lower.”

8.5% for the most exposed homes

“Fuel costs are higher in small towns, as are the energy costs of homes”, which are often more spacious outside large cities and therefore more expensive to heat, explains the OFCE to justify these differences.

“If inflation at the macroeconomic level stands at 5.2%, the 10% of households least exposed” to the rise in prices in 2022 “have seen their shopping basket rise by less than 3.4%, compared to the 8.5% of the most exposed homes”, concludes the Observatory.

The heterogeneity of the inflationary shock suffered by the French “shows the difficulty of organizing a compensation policy based exclusively on transfers conditioned to a single factor”, such as income level, for example, the study points out.

Non-targeted aid, such as the bonus in pumps or the tariff shield, have in any case considerably attenuated the inflationary shock, according to the OFCE.

“The loss of average purchasing power per household directly linked to the increase in the cost of energy products” is estimated by the OFCE at 560 euros in 2022, compared to 1,310 euros “in the absence of the public appliances” mentioned above.